1. Field
The disclosure relates to an electric precipitator. More particularly, the disclosure relates to an electric precipitator capable of preventing dielectric breakdown by ensuring the dielectric distance among a plurality of electrodes.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electric precipitator is installed in an air conditioning system to purify the air by collecting and removing contaminant such as dust contained in the air.
The electric precipitator mainly employs a two-stage electric precipitation scheme by separately providing a charging section and a collecting section. The collecting section forms an electric field by arranging a high voltage electrode and a low voltage electrode in parallel to each other.
However, if dust is accumulated on a surface of an electrode, electric current is instantaneously applied to the accumulated dust from a conductive electrode, so dielectric breakdown or discharge may occur between the electrodes. In this case, a loud sound caused by discharge may be generated.
In order to prevent such phenomenon, one surface or both surfaces of the collecting electrode are coated with insulating material. Further, a spacer or a protrusion is formed at one side of the high voltage electrode or the low voltage electrode to constantly maintain a gap between the high and low voltage electrodes.
When the high and low voltage electrodes are coated with plastic resin in the collecting section, the dielectric distance between the two electrodes is sufficiently ensured, so dielectric breakdown can be prevented. However, since the two electrodes are coated with the plastic resin, surface potential of the high voltage electrode may be reduced and surface potential of the low voltage electrode may be increased. Thus, space electric field strength may be reduced.
Further, if resistivity of the plastic resin found in the high and low voltage electrodes is reduced to solve such problems, electric current leaked through the spacer or the protrusion is increased. Thus, power supply output is increased, so power loss may occur.